Janne: It was good, really, really good. It was one of the best gigs we have done in a year, I think. And the audience was really nice for us. We even didn´t get wasted. So it was really great.

Anssi: Yeah, I felt like I was on the stage with an animal, cos Janne was doing so fine.

Janne: I was doing animalish.

And how did you like the show, Ville?

Ville: It was pretty good. It was our second one in Hamburg so far. I think this one was almost better than the earlier one. Last time we were there, I guess nobody hasn`t heard anything about us, but nowadays it has changed a little, so we are on a good way. (laughs)

You`re touring here in Germany with Disco Ensemble. How do both bands fit together?

Anssi: Yeah, we have this really nice competition thing going, so they must be aware that they have this lovely supporting band with them. Every night is going to be a party.

Janne: Yeah, party. And it´s really nice to be with the Disco Ensemble guys again. This is the third tour.

Ville: In my opinion we don´t have so many similar things than differences. But there are a few, you know, main elements that can be found in the music of both bands.

Anssi: Why should you always have like two rock n roll bands at the same time? It`s interesting if you have differences. That`s good.

You three guys in the band have been friends since childhood. Do you always agree with each other or do you have to discuss a lot about things?

Ville: We used to scream a lot to each others before, you know, in old days. But now we have learned something and we know when we should be quiet. (laughs) Over the years you have learned something from your band member´s faces and you can read them: “Now I shouldn`t say that kind of things that I was going to say”.

Anssi: That´s the way it goes. We are adults now or something. (laughter)

Janne: Yeah, but we have lots of disagreements, but I think it`s the main point to struggle and find the path then…

Ville: But we have found out that our disagreements are in the songs, not in the personalities. So we can forget about our fights, when we walk out of the rehearsal room or whatever place we´re fighting. (laughs) Maybe we`re going to be adults some day.
Your third album “Young Desire” will be published here in Germany on the 25th of April. If you check out the booklet, you`ll find these phrases “Too young, so young, forever young” and a little story. What´s the idea behind that all? I´ve heard it`s some kind of concept album?

Ville: Yeah, it`s really kind of a concept album. When we wrote “Scandal”, our second album, we decided that the third one would be also that concept one. We found that it would be nice to make an album with full of passion. The first song we wrote in “Young Desire” was “Young desire”, the title track, and it gave us kind of a way how to put the whole album. You know, it gave us kind of limits. That kind of bottom was built and then we just built on. (laughs)

How does the formation phase of a song look like? How do you start creating the songs?

Ville: Usually it starts like that I have a few riffs or melodies or kind of lyrics-themes. And then I show them the guys and then we have some disagreements (laughs) and after that we maybe find something that ends up in a song.

Anssi: Yeah, it´s usually like Ville brings some riffs and we try to cope with the idea. (laughs) And then we start to create the song. It don´t necessary have to be those riffs from the beginning, but they are the start point.

Janne: Usually I don´t really like Ville`s material what he brings to the table all the time, yeah maybe for the start only. I´m just giving him hard time with that and then he comes with another idea. And then the next time it could be good.

Anssi: But then in the end it is the same riff like in the beginning.

Ville: It`s kind of a process that it starts like bad Beatles and then we try to build it on and on and somewhere we use to loose that Beatles-thing and then usually it starts to work.

Janne: Yeah, but it`s not about the riffs or anything. We were talking about the same thing yesterday and we said that we all create our own song. And I guess you can hear it from the record. Yeah, if Ville is doing some really sensitive stuff, I could be like blasting my drums at the same time. And that is like I am playing a different song. I`m playing the song as I see it. (laughs)

Ville: That´s the one thing why people usually find us kind of a progressive band, because every member of the band is playing an own song during the same song. With “Young Desire” it was the first time, when we had a strong producer. We had a lot of discussion about, you know, what is the red line inside the song, what is the main theme right now? Is it chorus or is it beat or is it riff or whatever? I guess that we really learned something, when we did “Young Desire”, because it was kind of a new style to work for us. I don`t know what we are going to do, when we are making our fourth album. Yeah, it will be interesting to see. (laughs)

Which song are you especially proud of on this new album? Is there any highlight you would mention?

Anssi: “Young desire”, that`s a really touching song in every terms.

But for which reasons did you choose “Killer whales” as a single?

Anssi: That was like the song when we brought it to the studio and the producer listened to that, there was like “Okay, this must be it!”, cos on that song it`s easy to get the point.

Janne: Yeah, it`s like a basic pop song. It´s like a Beatles-song. (laughs) There you have the structure versus, chorus, versus, chorus, versus and then the last chorus, so there is nothing too difficult or progressive. I think it`s a bit boring to choose a single-track that is the easiest track on the album, but “Killer whales” was a good decision, so it`s nice.

You have also created a video for “Killer whales”. And in the background of that video there is always this kind of bubbles or what is it!? It looks like plankton…

Ville: Actually you don´t want to know what are those things in the background of that video. (laughter) But I can say, it`s a pretty interesting story, that we`re going to tell the next time.

Janne: We made it by ourselves. Yeah, so that is interesting. And it cost like 30 Euros. I think it`s really cool that we did it and it didn´t cost like anything. But we`re not going to tell you how we made it, otherwise someone is going to steal our idea.

I want to hear the story!

Anssi: We`re doing the thing, what they were doing in the 60ies.

Janne: We thought that it would be nice to make a video in the modern way, but with the classical elements from that kind of era. You hadn´t computers or 3-D-effects and we decided to do it with our own hands. And we really did. I guess it´s pretty good to do something without computers nowadays. (laughs)

“Music is…”, how would you continue this sentence?

Anssi: Music is party. (laughs)

Janne: I think music is a solution.

Ville: I think music is passion and running away from death. (laughs)

On Friday the 25th of April there is a bigger event taking place with different bands in Berlin`s Columbia Club. What kind of event is that?

Anssi: That is our record-labels night and there are five Finnish bands which are really great. I guess we have to feel that, cos we haven`t ever done that before, playing abroad with our fellows from Finland.

Ville: It´s kind of an interesting event, because there are five bands and four bands from Fullstream Records. And I guess it gives a kind of special power to every band, because we have played with all those bands – like us and the Seagulls and us and Disco Ensemble – before, but not together and not abroad. So it will be nice. It`s like moving your whole families (laughs) to a different Country, you know.

Anssi: And the main reason is that we`re sharing our rehearsal place with Downstairs and Seagulls and Disco Ensemble. Not with I Walked The Line, but this is like really moving. (laughs)

Janne: Yeah, but we forgot that this night in Columbia Club is part of “Helsinki in Berlin”.

Ahh, okay. So there are different events taking place the whole week?

Janne: Yeah, tomorrow there are going to be, I guess, Poets Of The Fall and Lovex and Manboy. Our producer plays in Manboy.

What do you think about the phrase “musicians are homeless people”?

Anssi: I was homeless, not really, but I didn´t have any own home, when we were recording this “Young Desire”. That wouldn´t be so nice, if all the musicians would be like that.

Janne: I have never heard that phrase, so I guess I don´t have an opinion about that, but I`m not homeless.

Okay, what do you think about it, Ville?

Ville: Mmm, I think that all creative people have some kind of emptiness inside and they try to fill that out somehow. I guess that`s the kind of thing you meant when you said “homeless”. It`s kind of minus inside…

I mean always touring around and never being at home…that feels a bit “homeless”.

Ville: Yeah, it´s kind of that, but I think it`s more in general.

Janne: You think it`s mental.

Ville: Yeah, it`s kind of minus inside of you and you try to fill it with plus, you know!? (laughs) You´re trying to be more than you are.

In this summer you will take part in some Finnish festivals like Ruisrock and Rockperry. Which festival do you prefer and why?

Ville: I prefer Ruisrock, because it`s one of the most traditional festivals in Finland. We have played there twice and both times there has been wonderful weather. It was kind of a heaven. (laughs)

Anssi: Yeah, Ruisrock is one of my favourites, too. And then of course Provinssirock. They are like real festivals.

Janne: Ruisrock is a fun festival to play, but I wouldn´t go there to see any bands and drink three days, cos it´s really a rip off festival and half of the bands they are bringing are same every year. From Sweden they had like The Ark like four years in a row, so it`s really boring, and some Backyard Babies and stuff like that. But Provinssirock is my favourite festival in Finland, if I have to choose where I`m going to spend three days…

Anssi: …your money.

Janne: Yeah, it would be like that!

How does a perfect weekend look like for you?

Ville: For me it look likes “Marienhof”. (laughs) I don´t know why, but it could be something without any hurry and something without hangover.

Anssi: A perfect weekend would like be having three wonderful shows without all this soundcheck and driving.

What have you learned in German so far here on the tour?

Ville: “Ich spreche nicht Deutsch.“

Janne: All that I know in German language is not appropriate to say, so…

Well, it´s not going out of this bus…

Janne: Yeah, but I´m not going to say those words.

Ville: By the way, we have this kind of promise that what we`re saying inside this bus, stays in the bus. So you have to give that promise also. (laughs)

Better not. But you can tell me which Finnish words or sentences we do have to know!

Anssi: You can shout these words “Kallia, kallia”. That means “Beer, beer”.

Your favourite beer?

Janne: Finnish beers? Karhu, yeah, Karhu.

Ville: I think free beer is the best.

Tomorrow is a gig-free day for you. What are your plans?

Janne: We have to drive to Berlin. We`re going to see the Manboy-show in Columbia Club, I guess, and Disco Ensemble.